Shoutout to the veteran smith who shared his cosmoline trick

I was cleaning a surplus rifle and the cosmoline was a sticky nightmare! My usual soak method took forever and left residue. He told me to use a heat gun on low with paper towels to wipe it away. It worked like a charm and saved me hours of scrubbing! Give it a shot if you hate that gunk too.

4 comments

4 Comments

ivant513d ago

Ask if you gotta take the rifle apart first. Worry about the heat hurting the metal finish. What's the best low heat setting to use without cooking the wood. How do you catch all the drips so it's not a huge cleanup job after. Ever try this on a really old crate rifle with cosmoline soaked deep into the stock.

dylan_cooper762d ago

Don't use heat guns, they'll wreck the finish and make a huge mess.

brian_fisher653d ago

My buddy tried that heat gun trick on his old Mosin last year. He had the thing dripping black gunk all over his garage floor, said it looked like a crime scene. But it got every bit of that sticky cosmoline out of the stock in like twenty minutes. He was shocked how well it worked.

ryantorres2d ago

That "crime scene" line from your buddy's garage is exactly what I pictured. Sounds like the heat works almost too well. Ivant51's question about catching the drips is what I'm stuck on now. How did your friend handle the runoff without ruining his work surface? Was it just a ton of cardboard or did he have a better setup to trap all that hot gunk?